COTABATO CITY — Four Filipino soldiers were killed in an ambush on Sunday morning by Dawlah Islamiya gunmen in Maguindanao del Sur province in the southern Philippines.
Brig Gen. Allan C. Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, received the report that the four slain soldiers belonged to 40th Infantry Battalion of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (6th ID).
Major Gen. Alex S. Rillera, commander of the 6th ID, identified his slain servicemen as Privates Marvin H. Dumaguing and Jessie James D. Corpuz, Private 1st Class Carl C. Araña and Cpl. Creszaldy S. Espertero.
He said they were together in a vehicle enroute to their command post when the terrorists opened fire at them with M16 and M14 rifles in Barangay Tuayan, Datu Hofer municipality.
Responding soldiers took the victims to the nearby Maguindanao Provincial Hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival due to multiple bullet wounds in the body.
The Dawlah Islamiya, an ally of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, perpetrated the deadly attack on the 6th Day of the Ramadan season, where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one lunar cycle, or about 29 to 30 days, as a religious obligation, a form sacrifice and reparation for wrongdoings.
Neither of the two terrorist groups is a party to the peace overtures among the national government, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front, which are together managing the now five-year Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a product of 22 years of peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF. — John Felix M. Unson
